The present invention is a wheelchair for use by elderly or individuals with spinal cord injuries who shower and/or have a bowel movement while in the wheelchair. This type of wheelchair is designed to roll over a toilet or to be rolled into a shower room.
A problem encountered with prior art wheelchairs is that it is difficult for a patient to wash his legs and feet, normally requiring the patient to bend far forward and reach down to do so. Accordingly, it is a particular object of the invention to provide means for supporting a patient's leg in a raised position so that cleaning of the legs and feet can be accomplished in a much easier manner than when using prior art wheelchairs.
The seats of prior art wheelchairs are unsatisfactory for a number of reasons. The seats do not provide adequate under seat access to enable a patient to place his hands in proper position for various toilet procedures. Such seats are cushioned with foam that often crushes under a patient's weight, and the foam is covered in some instances with stitched vinyl materials. This combination results in skin pressure, bruising and pinching which can lead to pressure ulcers, cuts or other injuries to the thigh, buttocks, etc. In addition, prior art seats do not provide adequate top surface area for transferring a patient onto or off of the seat in a lateral direction.
Prior art wheelchairs have employed many different types of armrests, some of which are disposed in fixed position and others of which are movable or even removable from the chair. Such armrests have certain disadvantages which are overcome with the invention construction. Firstly, it is desirable that the armrests are permanently mounted on the chair rather removable therefrom. Fixed armrests often interfere with lateral transfer of a user onto or off of the seat of the chair. Therefore, it is desirable that the armrests be movable into a position where they do not interfere with such movement of a user. When movable armrests are employed, it is further necessary that a mechanism be provided to securely lock the armrest in lowered operative position since users need to hook their arms under the armrest and pull upward against the armrest when positioning themselves in the chair.
Conventional footrests on wheelchairs have presented a number of problems. Footrests are typically flat and may or may not include a heel-strap to hold the user's feet in position. Such heel-straps are held in place by bolts which can cut the feet of the user. Footrests may also utilize height adjustment arrangements which have bolts to hold the footrest in the adjusted position. These bolts usually require the use of a tool such as a wrench to loosen and tighten the bolts when adjusting the height of the footrest. Therefore, height adjustment is rather difficult to accomplish, and is very inconvenient for a user.
Prior art footrests do not adequately protect a user's feet and toes and have sharp edges, which can damage the skin of a user's foot. Also the footrests are slippery when wet. It is also desirable to provide a footrest construction wherein each footrest is adapted to be pivoted up and out of the way when not in use.
The wheelchair includes drive wheels to which handrings are drivingly connected in the usual manner. Conventional handrings have relatively small diameters that are difficult for many users to grip in a satisfactory manner. Furthermore, the handrings are slippery when wet.